Theater review: 'Reefer Madness' from Theatre Downtown

With the campy musical "Reefer Madness," Theatre Downtown proves you don't need to inhale any mind-altering substance to get a case of the giggles.

Theatre Downtown has made rather a habit of these over-the-top musical comedies, in the last few years presenting "The Rocky Horror Show" and "Evil Dead: The Musical."

This production, which like "Rocky" and "Evil Dead" is directed by Steve MacKinnon, doesn't reach the giddy heights of its predecessors — but it's still a heck of a lot of fun. You could say it's smokin'.

"Reefer Madness" spoofs a melodramatic 1936 propaganda film designed to scare parents about the dangers their children face from marijuana. That lurid movie depicted rampant promiscuity, madness and manslaughter as the inevitable results of taking a puff — and so that's what the audience sees in highly comic and smoky fashion.

Sage Starkey, as the boy who goes astray, is comically squarer than square until Jack (Ralphy Colon, very good) introduces him to marijuana. As his girlfriend, Shannon Bilo-Zepf is the appropriately perky mix of wide eyes, squeaky voice and tight sweater.

John Gracey has the perfect patronizing, pompously urgent tone as he lectures the audience about "the leafy green assassin," an "unspeakable scourge." He arches an eyebrow and deadpans to great effect: "Some of you may feel I'm overreacting…"

But it's Adam Del Medico's freewheeling Jesus (yes, that Jesus) who brings down the house. Del Medico mixes a cosmic serenity in the knowledge he's the son of God with perfect comic timing and rock-star charisma. Jesus is cool.

In the role of Mae, pusher Jack's reluctant accomplice, MacKinnon has cast a man. It's a decision that does more harm than good. Victor Souffrant is very funny, and a man in a dress is always good for cheap laughs — but this is a show that's already overstuffed with cheap laughs. In Mae, a tragic addict who still has a conscience, there should be a poignancy, something human to cut through all the outrageousness.

Another missed opportunity occurs in the finale when the playwrights emerge from their silliness to make a point about the folly of hysterical witch hunts. The bite of that sentiment is lost — in part because the pointed lyrics are nearly lost in the sound mix, which is problematic throughout the show as actors struggle to be heard over the band.

Yes, looking for poignancy and a point to a show as silly as this is probably as futile as scrounging among the couch cushions in hopes of an undiscovered stale Dorito when the munchies strike. And in this case, at any rate, the audience is too busy laughing to care.

'Reefer Madness'

• What: A Theatre Downtown production of the Kevin Murphy-Dan Studney musical